Jon Ball

Sheffield music legends Pulp have been honoured with a plaque where it all began.

The band – famous for hits such as Common People and Disco 2000 – have been recognised with a music heritage plaque on the wall of famous city nightclub and live music venue The Leadmill, where the band played their first gig 35 years ago.

Drummer Nick Banks, who joined Pulp in 1986, said the band were pleased with the award.

He said: “It’s all very nice If people want to do nice things like that. It’s better than being kicked in the shins.”

Frontman Jarvis Cocker, the only current band member who was part of the line-up at the show on Saturday, August 16, 1980, said: “I think it was the Bouquet of Steel album launch – a compilation album of Sheffield bands.

“We tried to get on the album and failed, but the guy who used to run it decided to host a festival and he put us on the bill.”

This plaque will be unveiled at The Leadmill on Monday.

Jarvis, who was aged 16 at the time and was the oldest member in the group, said: “We were second on and we arrived in a mobile grocer’s van, because that was the only transportation we could get.

“We got on stage and we tried to play a Monkees’ cover, Stepping Stone, but the drummer forgot some of it, so it didn’t work very well.

“The bass player fell off stage because his guitar started feeding back and he didn’t realise how to stop it. We went down very well for the comedy value and we were offered some more concerts from that.”

The plaque was unveiled in front of the band – Jarvis, Nick, bassist Steve Mackey, keyboard player Candida Doyle and guitarist Mark Webber – by Simon Darlow, deputy chairman of PRS for Music, which licenses music, collects royalties and runs the music heritage scheme,

We were second on and we arrived in a mobile grocer’s van, because that was the only transportation we could get.

And Mr Darlow refused to rule out returning to Sheffield in future to recognise some of the city’s other big-name bands, including The Human League, Def Leppard and Arctic Monkeys.

He said: “With the number of bands Sheffield has turned out, I could be here a lot – and maybe I will.”

The award coincided with the celebrations to mark the 35th anniversary of The Leadmill and the World Snooker Championship final at the nearby Crucible theatre.

As part of Cue Sheffield, the BBC’s programme of events to mark the snooker tournament, Radio 6 Music DJ Steve Lamacq broadcast his show from The Leadmill as the unveiling happened, before hosting a gig in the evening, featuring Mystery Jets and Sheffield bands Slow Club and O Captain, as well as DJ sets from Jon McClure and Ed Cosens of Reverend and The Makers and Jarvis and Steve from Pulp.